Fletcher Taylor Snapp was a member of Joplin High School’s first graduating class of 1887, the first president of the Joplin Automobile Club, Joplin’s mayor from 1922-1926, one of the founders of the Citizens State Bank, a cashier of Cunningham Bank and building chairman during the long process of constructing the Scottish Rite Cathedral at 505 S. Byers Avenue.This house has suffered several devastating fires. The first of which claimed Mr. Snapp’s life when he was 79 years old and that of a handyman. The tragedy occurred when the oil furnace exploded while being repaired. His wife Elizabeth Belle (Betty) Mayes Snapp survived. This brown brick clad house has a porte cochére that provides covered access for visitors arriving by motorized transport—or back in the day for the horse and carriage. The portico, consisting of Ionic columns and a triangular pediment, beckons visitors to enter this stately home. The wrap-around covered porch with its turned balustrades serves as the venue for outdoor gatherings. The main entry door has cut glass sidelights with transoms. Furthermore, the beautiful historic wooden door is enhanced with a decorative oval arched transom. Each story has a curved bay window and all windows have limestone lintels.
The William Houk House
William Houk 1853 ~ 1911
A graduate of the Cincinnati Law School, he wed Edna Catherine Jackson in 1891. Mr. Houk consolidated several mining operations into the Conqueror Zinc Co. serving as its president with his wife as vice president. In 1905 he co-founded the Conqueror Trust Company, and was elected president. Mrs. Houk, was an early feminist, a prohibition activist, poet and writer of short stories. She published a book in 1893 called “Women Wealth Winners: How Women Can Earn Money.” Printed reproductions of her book are available through Amazon. Edna lists several jobs that a woman could take on before the turn of the century.
NOTE: Mr. Houk subsequently married Frances R. Hengelsberg, of St. Louis after Edna’s death. To this union two daughters were born, with the youngest child given the name of Edna! Boy you don’t see that very often!?
Edna Catherine Jackson | Mrs. William Houk, Married: William in 1891
Born: August 15, 1852 in Eckford, Calhoun County, Michigan
Died: June 1, 1911 in Joplin of Cancer of the Uterus
Interred: Mount Hope Cemetery, Webb City, Missouri
Children: Helen Adelaide Houk born September 17, 1895 in Cincinnati Ohio; Died August 25, 1912 in Joplin of Typhoid Fever
The Thomas Lennan House
Thomas Frank “Tommy” Lennan (1877-1946) was born and raised in Massachusetts and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899. Instead of following the course set by his family to go to sea, he immediately headed for the mining fields of the Midwest. He worked with mines in the Joplin area and Hattenville (later Commerce) Oklahoma. The Joplin Globe reported that “few of the veteran operators in the Tri-State field has as wide and as extensive a mining career as did Mr. Lennan.”
In 1906, he married Charlotte Gregg Lennan (1874-1967), a member of a Joplin pioneer family. When he was not at work, Mr. Lennan was most likely on the golf course at Oak Hill Country Club.
In 1893, Judge Oliver Hazard Picher owned the entire block (Moffet and Sergeant) and landscaped it as a private park surrounded by a stone wall which still stands today! His mansion was located at 204 S. Moffet. Eventually, the block was broken up into five properties with Mr. Lennan building a small cottage at 201 S. Sergeant to live in while his more stately house was being constructed at 219 S. Sergeant. During the Great Depression (1929 to mid-1930s) the owner of the Picher house lost all his money and the bank foreclosed on the property. Rather than find a new owner, the bank demolished the venerable old house.
The Benedict Landauer House
Mr. Landauer and Maude Hunt Landauer owned Landauer Wholesale Liquor, founded in 1876, with offices at 306 Main Street and a warehouse at 208 Main Street, Joplin. He was also a member of the Joplin Zouaves, a local militia which dressed in Turkish uniforms.
Maude was active in the Joplin League of Women Voters and the Century Club. She died in Cannes, France while vacationing with one of her daughters.
The current homeowners found original liquor advertising handbills dated 1910 under the attic floor during their restoration. Note: Prohibition started around 1920.
The Landauer family is buried in one of the two Jewish sections of the cemetery. Traditionally, mourners may leave a rock on the monument to show they had visited.
His home in Murphysburg displays a typical full-width Queen Anne asymmetrical design, hipped porch roof with pediment above the steps. The classical columns are supported by square brick plinths with delicate turned balustrade between the columns. The engaged porch is supported by tall tapered wood columns on brick plinths, which provides access to the offset entrance.
The William B. McAntire House
William McAntire (1848-1911) was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He came to Joplin in
May 1873 and was considered an early pioneer of Joplin. He was also a pioneer member of the Commercial Club of Joplin, which would many years later become the Chamber of Commerce. William married Charlotte “Lottie” Martin on February 14, 1876. She was born in June 1853 and lived until July 1909. William was an attorney and on several
occasions was elected police judge of the city.
He was in practice by himself and part of the time in partnership with his first cousin, J. W. McAntire. In the early 1890s he gave up active practice of law and entered the real estate business.
In Judge McAntire’s obituary he was described as a “…pioneer of Joplin and no man in the city’s history ever bore a better reputation. He forgot selfish ends where a question of integrity or honesty was concerned.” He also fostered many city improvements. One of Judge McAntire’s honorary pallbearers was Charles Schifferdecker.
His parents W.S. and Elizabeth E (VanMeter) McAntire were natives of Virginia. In 1849 William’s parents went west to Missouri locating at Memphis Scotland County where they engaged in agricultural pursuits for eight years. W. B. attended the schools while there acquiring a liberal education.
Mrs. McIntire was born in Scotland. From the marriage there were two children William Edwin born June 26, 1877 and Arthur Benford born October 1880. Mr. And Mrs. McAntire resided in their beautiful home on the corner of Fifth and Moffet.
ARCHITECTURE – The two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne house has a hip roof with lower cross-gables. Gabled wings project from the north, east and south elevations. A side-wrap hip-roof porch projects from the primary (north) and east elevations. It has limestone piers with round wood columns and a lattice railing. A pediment defines the entrance. A stylized Palladian window fills the peak of the gable above the cornice.
